Latin American and African Christians more devoted to religion than Christians elsewhere

According to the Pew Research Centre, Christians living in Africa and Latin America are more devoted to religion then Christians living in rest of the world. The study details that Christians in Africa and Latin America consider their religion more important as they tend to pray and attend religious services more often than Christians elsewhere in the world.

This new Pew Research Center study, analyzed 84 countries from across the globe. All the countries under observation had sizeable Christian population and it was found that in 35 out of these 84 countries, Christians consider religion as “very important.”

The data revealed by the Pew Research center, shows that 98 per cent of Christians in Ethiopia, 89 per cent of Ghanaian Christians, 82 per cent of Nigerian Christians, and 80 per cent of Christians in Colombia and Ecuador said religion was “very important” in their lives. In addition to these countries, 79 per cent of South African and 68 per cent of US Christians consider religion very important in their lives.

In contrast, the research shows that in Australia, merely 27 per cent of Christians in Australia consider religion very important in their lives, along with 30 per cent in Spain, 12 per cent in France and Germany and 11 per cent in the United Kingdom.

Strikingly, 68 per cent of US Christians said they pray daily and 47 per cent said they attend church at least weekly. At least four out of five Christians living in African countries including Nigeria, Liberia, Senegal, Cameroon and Chad pray every day. Six Latin American countries including Guatemala, Honduras and Paraguay have believers who pray every day. Lowest prayer frequency was recorded in countries including Austria, Germany, Switzerland, the UK and Malaysia. Data shows that in these countries, less than 10 per cent of believers in pray every day.

In terms of attending church, in African countries more than 60 per cent of Christians said they attended church at least weekly. More than two-thirds of Christians living in the Latin American countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador attend church weekly. In nine European countries including Denmark, Estonia and Russia less than 10 per cent attend church weekly.